Why Gruden won’t be back in 2010

When the 2009 season concludes, it will be eight seasons since Jon Gruden was head coach of the Raiders.

That’s twice as long as he was coach of the Raiders.

Yet the topic of his potential return is never far from the minds of a significant segment of Raiders fans, in part because none of his successors has lasted more than two years since Al Davis traded Gruden to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a long-ago spent $8 million and some draft picks that never amounted to much.

The possibility of Gruden returning is probably the most asked question every week during on-line chats. I usually brush most of them off with a quick “no,” or never post the question at all and move on to something else.

It’s rare when a week goes by where I don’t receive e-mails about Gruden coming back to the team where he first became a head coach in 1998.

When Gruden and Bruce Allen were fired in Tampa Bay last Jan. 16, this blog shut down for a few hours, and I’m convinced it had to do with excess traffic. Could have been something else, I suppose, but it was a heck of a coincidence.

I’m guessing the Raiders got their share of e-mails and phone calls as well, because by Jan. 18, John Herrera was telling reporters “We’ve been down that road” and that any talk about bringing Gruden back was reckless speculation.

Coach Tom Cable is in a tenuous position with the club acknowledging it will take a serious look at ESPN allegations regarding his his history of violence toward women, which comes on the heels of the Randy Hanson affair.

Those issues, accompanied by a 2-6 record from a team Davis proclaimed to be “pretty good” two days before the season started, have the Gruden wishful thinking rumor mill churning again.

I said during Tuesday’s chat I’d give a more detailed explanation as to why I don’t see Gruden coming back since the bye week afforded some time with just two days of practice, so here goes.

For all the talk of Gruden leaving because of Al’s ego, or Gruden wanting to get away from Al, or Gruden requesting Tampa to be closer to his family, the reasons for his departure were contractual.

The two sides were working on a contract extension in 2001. Even when Gruden’s agent, Bob LaMonte, was making his return sound dire, Allen, an important middle man in the Davis-Gruden alliance, always thought a deal would get done.

Very late in the season, Gruden thought he had a deal. The extension was for three years, averaging around $3 million per season. In it, Gruden had control of the 53-man roster and the ability to pick his own coaching staff. He was fine with Davis running the draft and free agency, where he would have input but not the final say. But his two main issues were picking his own team, and picking his own coaches.

When Gruden and LaMonte met at a restaurant not far from the club facility and opened the envelope containing the contract, the provisions regarding control of the 53-man roster and picking the coaches had been removed. Much of the money had been pushed to the last season.

If this was a negotiating ploy by the Raiders to get Gruden to take less, it backfired. At that point he was intent on coaching his last season and looking for another job.

Gruden loved coaching the Raiders. Loved the fans, the tradition. He was proud of having taken the mess he inherited from Joe Bugel and making it special again. He used to tell Rich Gannon, “If we can turn this place around and win a championship here, it will be our legacy.”

Working with Davis is no picnic, but as we sat in a hotel room that served as his office at the Bucs Orlando, Fla., training camp in 2004, Gruden said, “I thought we were doing OK. We made it work.”

One former Raiders assistant told me that when Davis would make a request that Gruden didn’t agree with, he would have a film cut-up made detailing his reasons. Davis would see that his idea had been seriously considered and back off _ in large part because the Raiders under Gruden’s watch were wildly successful by today’s Raiders standards.

With that as a backdrop, what do you think are the chances that Gruden would come to work for the Raiders without control of the 53-man roster and the coaching staff? Especially when he can probably get it someplace else.

And what do you think are the chances that he’d come to work even for the $3 million that was offered in 2004 _ considerably more than any Raiders coach has been paid since then? Especially when he can probably get it someplace else.

And what are the chances that Davis would grant control of the 53-man roster as well as complete control of the coaching staff?

And what are the chances that Davis would pay Gruden what he’d receive from owners with deeper pockets on the open market?

Gruden isn’t the only part of the equation.

One of the reasons the Davis-Gruden collaboration worked in Oakland was because of Allen. As single-minded as Davis is about what he believes in, Gruden is equally as driven and determined. He can be impatient and after a period of time can wear on even his most loyal friends and assistants.

Allen was the perfect buffer between Davis and Gruden. One former assistant coach described Allen as the person who made it all work, because without him, the owner and coach would have never co-existed comfortably.

Allen came to the Raiders in part because his father, the late George Allen, was an iconoclastic football lifer like Davis. Bruce Allen, like Davis, was a head coach at a young age, a young GM for his father in the USFL, and later became an agent. But Allen held coaches in reverence, having been raised by one, while Davis was more about players than coaches.

Trading Gruden was just fundamentally the wrong thing to do in Allen’s mind, and it was really no surprise when he opted to join Gruden in Tampa.

If Gruden were to return to the Raiders, the spike in interest would be off the charts. The success Gruden built in the form of two division championships and setting the table for a third, is reason enough for a lot of fans to long for the closest thing to the good old days that exist since the Raiders returned to Oakland in 1995.

How can that happen?

Davis admits his mistake and Gruden returns with control of the 53-man roster, control of his coaching staff, and a salary considerably more than any Raiders coach has ever been paid.

Allen returns to manage the salary cap run the day-to-day operations, mostly at Gruden’s behest.

Other members of the support staff who left the Raiders for the Bucs, and closely aligned with Gruden and Allen, also return.

Davis takes a back seat and lets someone else do the heavy lifting to rebuild his tattered franchise, available for advice, support and perspective but letting his coach and senior executive do their jobs.

If you think all those things can happen, dream on.

Hey, the Raiders came back to Oakland in 1995 after 13 years in Los Angeles. What’s another miracle 15 years later?

Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer

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When someone in your family needs an intervention, you just keep enabling?

lefty12

KK-in the last 3 hours nobody has claimed that.why don’t you try reading the comments before you start with your usual BS.also,why do you like to harp on 2 rookie WRs and a rookie(actually he isn’t) HC,but you never mention the inept QB?

the blowouts happen is because we dont have an offense to keep up with the D. Once the D sees that the game is over in the first quarter due to turnovers or whatever, the D just let it go. We all know football is like an orchestra…all units must be on the same page. Morever the D guys see the game is over and they just lose the intensity. Once the intensity is gone anyone is going to run all over you.

The other point that must be noted is that Cable is learning on the job too. As much as everyone wants to blame Al, I really see Cable as a very good motivator but learning on the job as playcaller. He called a decent game against SD that means dont allow the offense to lose the game for you given the lack of talent and experience on the O right now.

Clearly SD has more talent and experience than us right now and they won a close game. But calling plays around the talent that you have will go along way to allowing our D to win games for us like the KC and Eagles game. I am hoping to see a similar game plan against KC next week. That is our only chance to win.

los raiders de don rober

This year’s offense is worse than Art Shell’s B&B O. Cable is just lowering the head, Al will drop the Ax sooner or later…We wont get Gruden, or a hot assistant, or a respected HC candidate. We will get some out of the hat coach, and we’ll hope for a miracle.

Mistabrown

I see priest has been taking it in the shorts in here, very good!

I see OakGlen/BS Detector gave up his childish act.

The Blog is doing well! Carry on, keep up the good work!

Bye weeks are good for the fans too. You can only take so much of a circus act that is “JaMarshmallow”

Mistabrown

We feel pretty good going into the bye, we did some “self scouting”.

-Tom Cable

=================

Feel free to scout the opponent coach!

priesttj

Alisgod and SnB, Cable was veryslow to accept the fact that we must run the football to be successful. Russell was in no way prepared to carry this team. But he just continued to put the ball in his hands and it hurt us. We did,t possess the weapons to help the young stuggling QB. Russell has a long way to go but I finally think he is really on the right path.

These young kids on defense have been outstanding. Dez Bryant and Matt S and Tyvon Branch even T Scott came alive late. These guy’s will help provide a cornerstone for this defense for years. I even saw J Rich turn it around . This is very promising.

Now we just need the offense Chaz, JLH, DMC, MBush, Russell and DHB to start making the same kind of strides and we can have a team capable of making a move to get to the top of this division. But it starts with Russell taking the team by the reigns and leading it. Cable has been very hard on him in that regard and it’s nice to see signs of a positive response.

In one week we’ll see if the signs are more visible to the untrained eye. I’ve heard some positive things out of camp and I hope they manifest themselves to the fans.

raidertbone

Yaers from now, people will continue to look back and laugh at the selections of JaBust-us and Worthless Heyward-Bey by the Raiders. We really had a chance to draft for quality and depth and begin to build up solid O and D lines; hopefully, we will begin that process next year. Al is so desperate to return the Raiders to glory quickly, that his “reaches” are becoming more and more costly. C’mon Al – hire a GM who KNOWS the game and who KNOWS they way the game works NOW — the old AFL ways just don’t cut it anymore!

“I’m happy to stop posting here anytime cause most in here are like whinning babies that can’t have their way.”

I 😎 repeat:
Don’t let the door hit you in the a$$ on your way out buttholeprik 😆

raidertbone

Trolls:
Just remember – if your punt hits the scoreboard, you are entitled to a “do-over”!

Trolls 35 Raiders 0

# raidertbone Says:
November 7th, 2009 at 7:15 pm

Trolls:
Just remember – if your punt hits the scoreboard, you are entitled to a “do-over”!

😆

raidertbone

As much as everyone talks about wanting Gruden back, there are two matters to consider: 1) money; and 2) the collective egos of Chucky and Al. Neither of those scenarios look promising for Gruden’s return. Let’s just hope we get a good, knowledgeable, EXPERIENCED GM and then a younger, eager coach who will listen to him and begin building the organization the way Belichick has built New England.

priesttj

Raidertbone, the game hasn’t changed a bit just the players. The game is still blocking and tackling everything else is just individual talent.

You think we will regret Russell and DHB, DHB has played all of 8 games. While I wouldn’t have drafted him he was easily a 1st rnd pick on all scouting reports. He just has a very young inexperienced QB, and he is a rookie. Bad match!! for both players.

raidertbone

Priest:
DHB may have been rated as a first-rounder … maybe. Yet, there were at least four receivers rated ahead of him, including the guy who all the reports said we were going to select (Macklin). My biggest regret was that we sacrificed the opportunity to bring in Ron Brace, and instead opted for Mike Mitchell. If D-Mac proves to be injury- riddled, that could end up spelling defeat for the past three first-rounders we have had. By the way, I don’t THINK we will regret Russell — he is slready DONE in my book. Biggest high first-round QB busts since Ryan Leaf and Tim Couch.

Trolls 35 Raiders 0

# priesttj Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 9:42 pm

16, I didn’t say I was in the room I said I was in the office. I’ve never been privy to a direct exchange between the two parties. Unless it was in the lockeroom. Where that would never happen.

Party hard, Nation! No loss tomorrow – unless Al calls a press conference to fire Cable — anything to upstage the rest of the league for the weekend!

Richochet

# alisgod Says:
November 7th, 2009 at 5:26 pm

SnB,

We all know football is like an orchestra…all units must be on the same page.

RICHOCHET: Dude..that was lame. Like an “orchestra”?? WTF?
Wait..you played violin, didn’t you?

##########################

The other point that must be noted is that Cable is learning on the job too. As much as everyone wants to blame Al, I really see Cable as a very good motivator but learning on the job as playcaller.

RICHOCHET: good motivator? CABLE??? You freaking moron..the guy has motivated NO ONE. You have any idea what the word even means? Raiders qb, which was the #1 pick, is DEAD LAST IN THE NFL IN HIS POSITION. Raiders first round WR is dead LAST of all starting WR’s. His forte’, the oline, is one of the worst in the NFL. Raiders have been BLOWN OUT in almost half of the games he’s coached..again..YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT ‘MOTIVATOR’ MEANS.

################################
He called a decent game against SD that means dont allow the offense to lose the game for you given the lack of talent and experience on the O right now.

RICHOCHET: idiot take from the resident idiot. His play calling sucks. Quit with the “excuses”. You call the game utilizing what you have. Cable sucks at it. You’re just to slow to grasp it.

Richochet

# priesttj Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 11:56 pm

You guy’s buy into this no coach will come here crap but you just don’t know the truth. There are several coaches that will come here and the list is growing. These are once in a lifetime jobs great coaches that are sure of themselves RARELY turn them down.

You’re a LIAR, and an idiot. NAME THEM. I dare you. You won’t, because YOU CAN’T.

You’re ball less, and a liar. there are ZERO “great coaches” that would accept. See, already MARGINAL coaches have had NOTHING to do with Al.

Let me school your sorry ass…yet again.

Saunders? Interviewed. Immediately following? HIS AGENT CALLED THE RAIDERS and stated “Don’t bother drawing up an offer..NOT INTERESTED.

Mike Martz? Interviewed. BEFORE HE GOT TO THE OAKLAND AIRPORT..yes…after leaving Alameda..BEFORE HE REACHED HEGENBERGER, his agent had called up the Raiders and stated ‘thanks, but no thanks. Not interested. No need to make an offer.”

Whizenhunt… SAME THING..interviewed..lots of talk about him being signed..TURNED IT DOWN AND SAID NO THANKS.

Kiffin Sr…SAID NO THANKS.

Now, we all know you’re an idiot, priest. You and your silly little fairy tales about how you’re IN THE KNOW..so..here’s your chance, MOUTH..prove it.

NAME THOSE QUALITY HEAD COACHES THAT WOULD GLADLY TAKE THE RAIDER JOB. There are none. The ONLY candidate that would ever take the Raiders job is a down on his luck FORMER HC, who wants another shot..that seemingly NO ONE ELSE WILL GIVE HIM (See Shell. See Turner) or an asst, that no other team has made an offer to, and wants to get his foot in the door (See GRUDEN. See Cable. See Bugel. See Kiffin)

Hell, Al was so freaking desperate that Kiffin was INTERVIEWED AS A OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR..and when other candidates TURNED AL DOWN, he had no one else. He called in Kiffin, and Kiffin, much to HIS SURPRISE, WAS OFFERED THE HC JOB…hell…Al didn’t even KNOW KIFFIN’S FIRST NAME, and called him Lance.

Richochet

# priesttj Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 11:56 pm

And there ar least 10 possible coaches for each and every team. There’s 5 coaches right here right now that would take this job in a heartbeat. Just for starters.

RICHOCHET: Of course they would. It’s called getting foot in door, you dumbass. Shanahan. Went elsewhere, and won a SB..Gruden..went elsewhere and won a SB. Any asst will take job. I’m sorry..but WHERE’S THE GREAT COACHES YOU MENTIONED? There are none..that’s why you’ll avoid this post, lol..won’t touch it with a 10 foot pole..because you know I’ll school your ass.

################################3

Big Al is not in the least bit interested in Gruden……….period

RICHOCHET: Only thing you said that’s true. Rest is BS.
Chuckie got the last laugh with Al. Al looked like a total freaking idiot in that deal. Al never forgets or forgives. Chuckie wants Al as much as Al wants chuckie, which is only in the line of fire.

#############################

Also if I were a betting man if you could make the allegations about Cable disappear he would prefer Cable over a lot of the coaches that are out there. Cable has a long way to go to get to where he’s going to be he’s learning fast but still a long way to go.

RICHOCHET: lmfao…damn, that was ignorant. Cable is a tree stump. Worst HC in the league, bar none. Figures you would say that, fool.
#################################################

He loved Gruden getting credit but not at the EXPENSE of the team.

RICHOCHET: LIAR. you can’t post one single thing from one single source. You just made that up.

Richochet

# priesttj Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 11:56 pm

John Madden is one of Mr Davis’s best friends and Madden is wildly famous.

RICHOCHET: BULL****. Best friends make time for each other. Help each other out. Madden has nothing to do with Al. Showed up to watch practice. Showed up at a game. That has NOTHING to do with Al. Madden took a position with the league, even though it’s obvious Al needs his help. Again, no one wants anything to do with Al.
##############################

Truth be told you rarely hear from Mr Davis all through the Gruden tenure. Nobody ever heard from him. Same thing now he rarely if ever makes an appearance and people still perpetuate this myth. Mr Davis wants to win………period Helll you’d hardly know he was the owner if the media wasn’t so freaking obsessed with him.

RICHOCHET: Blind sorry lemming that you be..Yeah, NOW he’s old, needs a walker, but doesn’t stop him from meddling, does it?

See, even during Gruden’s tenure, Al used to ride out onto the field on his golf cart, DURING PRACTICE, and call all the players over. What? You didn’t know about that? Thought you were..you know..”in with the team at practices’?? You didn’t know Al would decide to give lessons to the defense on how to play their positions? Did the same during Shell, Turner..before he had trouble moving, talking, and thinking.

And BUTTING OUT? lol..you idiot. Who hired the assts? NOT THE HEAD COACH, FOOL..was Al. See, in EVERY OTHER TEAM the HC’s hires his team..but..not Al. HE HIRED THEM, and THEN hired Cable.

Press conferences to announce signings? WHO RUNS THOSE? The head coach..there’s Singletary talking about the Niners signing Crabtree..who announced Seymour? AL DAVIS, NOT Cable. Who did ALL THE TALKING? Al “Meddling” Davis..NOT THE HEAD COACH.

Who benched Russell? Well?? come on you spineless worm…WHO BENCHED HIM? Hint: Before the team got into the locker room, AFTER the game, Cable had already KNOWN WHO WAS STARTING THE FOLLOWING WEEK, and stupidly stated it..making it very clear on who’s decision it was.
You, being a flea, won’t state it..will you? lol.

Ok, dumbass..try this one on..Norv announced Tui was the starter for the final 4 games..EVEN NORV ADMITTED AL OVERRULED HIM..and put back in Collins..who lost the remaining games..that’s CALLED BUTTING IN, MORON.

Get the point? You don’t have a clue.

Ok…as salt in the wound? Kiffin announces he’s letting Ryan go. See, that’s what head coaches do..decide their team..except Al ANNOUNCES TO ALL that “I fire coaches, and Only me.”

Pretty funny watching you soil yourself over the old man.

10 years from now? Raider will still be setting the “consecutive double digit loss” record, and you’ll be STILL saying “It’s NOT AL’S FAULT..IT’S NOT…IT’S NOOOOOT”

And we’ll still be laughing at ya.

Richochet

Yep, still LMFAO at ya, priest…

Cringe, loser…cringe 🙂

priesttj

Raidertbone this is what I have a hard time with, why don’t you guy’s see what we did instead of worrying about what we didn’t do. Ron Brace is OK since when is he some dominant DT?? I just don’t get it.

Don’t you see the kid we did get in Dez Bryant who IMO is better than Ron Brace and Matt S who’s played better than most 1st rnd DE’s in the last 2 years. Ron Brace, who cares? Mitchell hasn’t shown a lot but Tyvon Branch is as good as they come. And Huff is finally living up to his draft status.

I wouldn’t have drafted DHB or Macklin. I would’ve drafted the LB from USC Brian Cushing. And drafted Rey in the 2nd. Hopefully we can make up for that next year. You guy’s have to undestand maybe they don’t rate the players you want as highly as you do. I haven’t seen anything from DHB that really disappoints me. He’s a rookie WR with a young QB what the hell do you expect?

Yeah, Bey is a rookie WR. EVERY OTHER WR IS DOING BETTER THAN BEY..Bey was the first one chosen.
Your sorryass excuse fest just makes you an idiot, as well as being a worm.

Point: ‘I’ve seen nothing from Bey that really disappoints me”??
He couldn’t catch a ball all training camp if his life depended on it.
Balls thrown to him he meekly watches go into opponents arms, or to the ground, while not even going for it.
He’s dropped balls that hit him right in the hands.

Only a sorryass homer would state what you did.

Trolls 35 Raiders 0

# priesttj Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 9:37 pm

16, If I get them, you’ll know…..ignore the background noise.
IF ❓ A man of your status should be able to guarantee the tickets 💡

priest we can make up for not getting cushing by getting spikes from florida and that lb from oregon st. i forget his name but he is #32. he was layin some vicious hits against cal today and scouts aorund the league are high on him. he plays with a mean streak which is clearly lacking from our soft azz lbs.

armond

i would take gruden back but only as a coach. i believe he would be more aggressive with these players cuz they are far more explosive than the old players he had before. the problem is this team is poor at fundamentals which he could coach up. those same boring plays could then become bigger plays with the likes of all the speed we have. cable should get to finish out the year and hopefully he can turn it around. i loved the idea of harbaugh last year cuz he is an nfl guy in college. i was hoping he would get the job instead of cable.

armond

we need a dt who can disrupt some plays big time. we are very invisible in the middle of this defense. id like to se seymour back at dt like he was at georgia and get another de at his current spot. then get a dt inFA nad the draft. dont matter whio and where as long as they can play.

League, Raiders working closely on Cable case
Posted by Mike Florio on November 7, 2009 11:42 PM ET
At a time when some might believe that the NFL and the Oakland Raiders would be unable to get on the same page on any issue, the league and the team continue to work closely together regarding the appropriate response to recent allegations of domestic violence against coach Tom Cable.

The process, we’re told, is ongoing, and no quick answer is expected.

As we’ve previously pointed out, the issue poses a serious dilemma, requiring the NFL and the Raiders to balance the importance of eliminating domestic violence and the apparent unfairness of punishing a coach for something that happened years before the coach was hired in any capacity by the team.

So don’t expect any of the Sunday pregame shows to have the scoop on where this one is heading. For now, no one really knows.

Nnamdi21

Its heading no where. You simply can’t punish Cable retro actively.

Law enforcement has already looked at and dismissed him in the second case and as you point out, the previous incident was 20 years a go.

The NFL’s concern over this matter smacks of BS because they down play other acts of violence against women by other members of the Leauge.

All this goes away if the Raiders start to win. All it takes is an attidue adjustment to play harder then their opponents.

We’ll see after the bye…

Nnamdi21

Pairing Bey with SanJay Lal made little sense to me.

Everyone knew Bey would need serious training and polish, then tio give him to Lal who’s never been a head coach at anything on this level and has very little wide reciever coaching at all seems like a bad idea.

We get Gallery and Green back and if Satele really has come around, we could get the ground game going again.

I’m hoping Khalif Barnes manages to show enough progress to stay on.

Pretty sure his days of off field antics may be over and he’s a legitimately talented tackle who could theoretically play left or right and hopefully replace Green in the near future.

Get the O line healthy, the ground game on track and maybe some play action can stretch the field with or with out Schilens.

Hiiting women, Children, animals, and other beings is wrong unless it couldn’t be avoided ( self defense). People change. I know I did, and I’m not proud of everything I did. I wasn’t a saint, so I don’t like to judge people. He did it 20 years ago, so why bring it up now?

I find it very disturbing when a member of a minority group like KK can stereotype other minority groups!! How does it feel when people do it to you? Should I assume you are ignorant, drug seller, or fin Aide because you are black?!

doriangray

chuck norris once drank a cup of steroids that shawne merriman gave him , & he asked why do u have my blood in a cup ?